MacDonald, 68, is asking that his sentence be vacated after having served 33 years in federal prison for the 1970 murders of his wife Colette, 26, and daughters Kimberley, 5, and Kristen, 2.

A Raleigh jury convicted MacDonald of the killings following a six-week trial in 1979.

MacDonald, who was an Army surgeon assigned to a Green Beret unit, has maintained his family was killed by a band of intruders who burst into his Fort Bragg home on Feb. 17, 1970.

At the heart of MacDonald’s appeal are three hairs found inside the home that were never linked to any of the family and statements from a woman named Helena Stoeckley, who claimed as often as she denied, being in the home at the time of the killings.

MacDonald hopes new evidence related to the hairs, and statements made bstatey a now-dead deputy U.S. Marshal that he witnessed Stoeckley confess her involvement to a prosecutor and prosecutor threatened her, will be enough to secure his release.

Check back later for more on this developing story.

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About This Blog

Welcome to Legal Briefs, where you will find all kinds of information about the happenings in southeastern North Carolina’s court systems. The blog will cover cases in the federal Eastern District of North Carolina and in Pender, Brunswick and New Hanover counties. Whether it’s an arraignment, trial, sentencing or some other court proceeding, Legal Briefs will keep you informed and up to date.

Legal Briefs is also here for you, the reader. Got questions about a post or an interesting news tip? Send an e-mail or leave a comment. Legal Briefs is here to start a civil conversation about what goes on in court.

F.T. Norton, courts reporter, came to the Wilmington StarNews from the Nevada Appeal in Carson City, Nev., where she covered courts and cops for more than a decade.

Before that, F.T. was an active-duty Army public information specialist.

The mother of twins in their senior year of high school, F.T.. fancies herself a news junkie and true crime fanatic. In her off time she surfs the internet, watches too much reality TV and yells a lot at her weinerjacks, (half-dachshund/half-Jack Russell) Lucy and Moose.